Atelier - Munich
A compact, modern dining room
Rating: 16/20
Where: Munich, Germany
When: Dinner for 1 on 28 January 2025
Cost per Person: Tasting menu 250-285 Euro, Wine Pairing 99-121 Euro
Accolades: 2 Michelin Stars
Why: French fine dining with subtle influences from other cuisines
Munich's grand-looking hotel “Bayerischer Hof” might be best known internationally as the annual venue of the Munich Security Conference. But for the more culinarily inclined, it's its restaurant “Atelier” that takes all the attention (although maybe not the prize for most descriptive restaurant name). Under its previous chef Jan Hartwig, Atelier had been Munich's first three-Michelin-starred restaurant in over 25 years. I didn’t go there during that time, but had always been curious about the restaurant, which today is run by chef Anton Gschwendtner, who has held two Michelin stars ever since he took over the kitchen. So I was happy to make it my first stop on a quick Europe trip that would take me to Vienna the next day.
A mere three hours had passed since my flight from San Francisco had landed in Munich. Luckily, the rain had just stopped, which allowed me to walk from my own (considerably cheaper) hotel through the chilly, wintry city to the Bayerischer Hof. After admiring the hotel's facade with its old-school elegance, I kind of expected a ballroom-like dining room for its premier restaurant. The reality, however, turned out to be quite different. Atelier's modern interior design owed more to the 21st century than the fin de siècle. With its concrete walls, windows covered with wooden slats, relatively low ceiling, eight tables and no views, it also felt more like a small box than a grand ballroom. No worries, though - I was here for the food.
Atelier served a single seven-course tasting menu that could be shortened to five or six courses. When going for the full length, one was able to choose between a selection from the cheese cart and a cheese course prepared by the kitchen. Upon prior request, the menu could also be made vegetarian. A wine pairing was offered as well, with all wines priced by the glass. In fact, the wine pairing menu offered several additional, more expensive, wines by the glass, making it quite easy to create a bespoke wine pairing, with a chosen number of glasses and a desired price point. We had seen something similar at Munich’s Tohru the previous year, so this flexibility might be a welcome local trend. Since the wine pairing didn't start until the first “official” course, ordering an aperitif wasn't a bad idea. Overall, the wines were pretty good and (with only one exception) all went well with the food.
The dinner started with three small bites. First, a sauerkraut macaroon filled with grilled octopus, pointed cabbage (Spitzkohl) and Black Forest ham belly. Without the introduction, I wouldn't have guessed that the macaroon contained any sauerkraut, since it definitely wasn't sour. Tastewise, the first impression was of the lovely, smoky octopus that had a slight bite. Then it transitioned to the pork belly. A nice beginning to the meal 17. A little chickpea tarlet was filled with a duck liver praline, pumpkin, apricots and mustard. The cracker had a nice crunch, the liver was earthy and there was a hint of sweetness, presumably from the apricots 17. Last, but not least, I received a razor clam served in its shell that was prepared with avocados and grapefruit. This was by far the lightest and freshest tasting among the three amuse bouches. Acidic and a bit fruity, it almost felt like a palate cleanser after the previous, heavier bites. Unfortunately, I couldn't really taste the clam, though 17.
Three kinds of bread were served, all warm. Twice-baked sourdough and a bread made with apple juice (if I understood that correctly) were served sliced, next to a little pretzel brioche. They came with a salted butter and a horseradish/ricotta cream that was topped with pumpkin seeds and dried pumpkin powder. The butter was a bit nondescript, but the horseradish cream was lovely, with a nice balance of spiciness and creaminess. The breads were good as well, but not life-changing. The pretzel brioche tasted essentially like a pretzel, the sour dough had a nicely crunchy crust and the apple bread had a hint of sweetness and felt a bit more moist 16.
One last appetizer before the start of the main courses and the wine pairing. A poached oyster was served with little cubes of smoked eel, a slice of red beet, green apples and a dashi/buttermilk foam. The oyster practically melted in one's mouth - an interesting texture, but that meant that the taste was dominated by the rest of the dish. The first things one noticed were the fresh, crunchy apples and beets, followed by the lightly smoked eel with its almost creamy consistency - lovely. I felt that all parts of this dish were executed very well, but somehow didn't cohere into a single dish. In other words, I didn't quite know what to make of this (blame the jetlag, maybe) 17.
The first “real” course featured a filet of char. It was topped with carrots prepared two ways: pickled and as a crunchy salad. In addition, there were little mussels and a vinaigrette made from those same mussels. The fish had a curious texture - it looked like it had been cooked sous vide, and I kind of expected (hoped?) that consequently it would melt in one's mouth. Instead, its consistency was pretty firm. The slightly acidic sauce was very flavorful, but the mussels disappeared in the dish 17.
The next dish would have been left out if one had gone with only five courses. A hand-dived Scottish scallop had been fried on both sides, and had the caramelization to prove it. It came with a savoy cabbage cream, a pasta sheet covering a liquid quail egg yolk, chives, slices of black walnuts and a Parmesan sauce. The first bite I took contained the pasta, chives and savoy cabbage. It was exceptional. Similar to noodles combined with sauerkraut, it was light, a bit acidic, full of flavor and had a distinctively Bavarian taste profile. Maybe this was where the menu was going? A 18 or 19 just for this bite. But unfortunately, the rest of the dish had other ideas. The earthy egg yolk countered the acidity of the sauce, making it a much heavier dish. The scallop was fine, but didn't take much flavor from the sauce. And the sweet, slightly nutty walnut didn't quite seem to fit into this dish 16.
Pikeperch was prepared in a Japanese style. Scalding hot oil had been used to make its scales crispy, before the fish was put into the over for another three minutes. The fish was served with a risotto that contained pointed cabbage, vadouvan-marinated onions and a sauce made with coconut and galangal, a variant of ginger. Similar to the char, I was surprised by the texture of the pikeperch. It was almost overcooked on the outside, but its insides had an almost raw texture, and were really hard to cut - not very compelling. There were little starchy cubes under it, maybe the risotto? The sauce was decent enough, my favorite though were the onion slices - nicely acidic and with a distinct curry flavor 15.
Next up, fried sweetbreads that had been glazed with their own jus. They were served over lentils, and came with champignons, mushroom powder, red-beet-marinated celery and a sherry foam. I'll admit that sweetbreads are not my favorite ingredient, since I'm not a big fan of their distinctive texture. Here, lightly fried on the outside, they were (objectively) pretty good, but still maintained their spongy consistency on the inside. The best part of this dish were the lentils. Cooked al dente, their texture was reminiscent of a risotto. They came with a lovely sauce whose seasoning made one think of a “foreign” dish, but it was hard to assign it to a specific cuisine. Were there hints of Indian, of Middle Eastern flavors? In any case, very good, 17 for the lentils and overall 16.
A quail breast was covered with a soufflé and served with marinated red cabbage, young spinach leaves, pomegranate seeds, pine nuts and ras el hanout seasoning. The souffle made this dish seem a bit like a quail omelet. I liked that there were no bones to contend with, and overall this was a relatively heavy dish. Only the crunchy, slightly acidic red cabbage made an effort to make to lighten it up a bit. Fine, but not very distinctive 16.
For the cheese course, I chose the kitchen-prepared option. (Note that the cheese is the first thing to go when one orders fewer than seven courses.) I saw the cheese cart at nearby tables, and it looked quite small compared to the elaborate displays seen in France. My dish came in three bites, each containing layers of four different ingredients. Those were: Irish blue cheese made from sheep's milk, a slice of artichoke, some coppa and a bit of radicchio. This was a hearty dish - meaty thanks to the coppa, and heavy due to the meat and the blue cheese. A bit of acidity might have helped to brighten up the dish and bring out more of its flavors. Good, but not great. What totally didn't work for this course, unfortunately, was the paired sweet port wine. It was way too sweet for such a savory, earthy dish, and probably would have been a better fit for a cheese selection from the trolley 15.
A palate cleanser contained pears, sunchokes, a coffee ice cream and a pear sauce. This dish was a bit of a mix, partly sweet and partly savory. The pears were quite sweet, but the rest was much less so, in particular the sunchokes. I suppose this mix of sweet and savory was intentional as a transitional dish, but I felt that the different components didn't quite come together as a single, coherent dish 15.
Quince was the star of the main dessert, appearing both as a fruit and as part of the sauce. Also present: chocolate and a foam that contained so much vanilla that it had became dark. Not surprisingly, that foam had a very strong vanilla flavor - lovely! There was also some crunchy texture, but mainly this was a fruity dessert, although not in the sense of bright fruit flavors, but more of the wintry, restrained kind. A dish that managed to seem neither light nor too heavy 16.
Three petit fours and six chocolate pralines concluded the dinner. First, a play on a traditional Turkish dessert that contained blood oranges, ricotta, pistachios and fried kataifi dough. It was crunchy, heavy thanks to the cream, and not too sweet. Maybe more fruit would have lightened this up a bit 14. Although I grew up in Germany, I don't remember encountering a “Maulwurfkuchen” (literally: mole cake) before. Luckily, no moles are harmed in the making of such a cake. Instead, it it a chocolate cake made with bananas, and (in this particular instance) also some passion fruit and yuzu. Fine, but actually tasting more of passion fruit than banana 14.
The final petit four was a little tartlet filled with miso, coconut and yuzu. This was the lightest of the three bites 15. I tried all six chocolate pralines that were offered. “Sesame gianduja” had a good sesame flavor and a light crunch 17. “Salted caramel” had a liquid caramel center - very tasty 18. “Mango/tangerine” was not very fruity 14. Similarly, “passion fruit” was light on flavor as well 14. “Cinnamon flower” didn't have a very distinctive taste 14. The “almond speculoos” praline was better, and had a crunchy texture 16.
Overall: This dinner featured predominantly French cuisine with a few influences from other countries (for example, Japan), but blink and you'd miss them. I liked the friendly service and enjoyable wine pairing. But in the end, this meal left me a bit underwhelmed. Maybe it was the jetlag, but not a single dish truly wowed me. The texture of the fish and scallops could have been better, the flavors could have been punchier, and sometimes the different components of a dish didn't quite come together as a cohesive whole. There is definitely potential here, though. Many dishes sounded great in principle, for example if the char had been of better quality, that dish could have been divine. And there were some unexpected delights, such as the lentil “risotto” that had a wonderfully unplaceable flavor profile, and my mind-blowing first bite of the scallop dish 16.
